How to make your water heater more efficient
| Updated: 7/06/2009 1:36 pm |
Published: 7/04/2009 5:22 pm |
Kelly Dudzik: "We're back with another edition of Bill Busters. Bret Curry from the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas. Your number two expense on your energy bill where you're losing money, right here, right?"
Bret Curry: "Right here at the water heater, Kelly, you're absolutely correct. This one happens to be an older style natural gas. Consume only have two choices when it comes to heating water. Electric and natural gas. This unit has an efficiency rating of about .57, which means about 43-percent of the energy goes out through the flue."
Kelly Dudzik: "What can you do to make sure you're not losing all that energy?"
Bret Curry: "Well, one thing to do is to put on a blanket, a wrap around your water heater and then also look at water heaters that have efficiency ratings of .90 or higher."
Kelly Dudzik: "What will that cost you, right there?"
Bret Curry: "This is about 12 bucks."
Kelly Dudzik: "And over the course of the year will it save you more than 12 dollars?"
Bret Curry: "Yes, absolutely. It's a quick return on investment."
Bret Curry: "This would be the electric water heater, Kelly, and you can see that this one is a very efficient unit because it has a very thick foam insulation around the tank, and what happens it when you heat the water, it doesn't cool off because of the insulation and then you don't have to spend extra money to heat that water again."
Kelly Dudzik: "So, compared to what we just looked at, how much more efficient is this one?"
Bret Curry: "This is about 45-percent more efficient than the other one we looked at."
Kelly Dudzik: "All right, and that can save you a lot of money down the road."
Kelly Dudzik: "Homeowners have another choice when it comes to heating their homes, and this is it."
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